The lizardfolk might as well have fallen over from astonishment at the woman’s comment. ‘I can still see you’? What did she mean by that? How could that possibly be? Was she just messing with him? Getting in his head? Yeah, that must have been it. No way she actually could.
But could she? He stopped moving altogether. He wanted to see if she was just bluffing. Despite his best efforts, his confidence was slowly fading.
“Kick his ass, Riva!” shouted Leone from the stands.
“You be quiet!” the round, reptilian man yelled before covering his mouth in regret.
Riva circled the edge of the fighting area slowly, staying cautious of her opponent. She stopped looking directly at the lizardfolk, allowing him to think her words had just been a bluff and she could not actually see him. Instead, she kept him in her general line of sight without staring at him directly. The bait worked. Regaining a bit of confidence, the rotund reptile shot his tongue out once more. The flying tongue, invisible to everyone except Riva, smacked against the wall of the arena about 2 feet in front of her face. Despite seeing it coming, she had to keep up the facade that she hadn’t. All she had to go off of, as far as the lizard knew, was the sound of his tongue hitting the wall. It took everything she had not to flinch on instinct.
She quickly realized the shot of the lizardfolk’s tongue had not had the intention of hitting her. Smacking into the arena wall was intentional. She wondered why, but couldn’t look over to the reptile and react, for doing so would drop her bluff. Finding an excuse to stop walking and not bump into the scaly man’s tongue, Riva asked, “You got kind of quiet, hun’. Everything alright? I didn’t scare you, did I?”
Without looking at the reptilian man directly, Riva noticed the lizardfolk reeling back his head, creating an even tighter elasticity than he already had with the wall of the fighting area. Clearly, the man was too busy trying something to speak.
With a final pull, the lizardfolk shot forward like a cannonball, retracting his tongue while keeping it stuck to the wall. He flew toward Riva, holding his arms and legs out like a starfish as he bowled forward. Again, the woman was not supposed to see him. She had told him she could, but, as she had hoped, the reptilian man took it as a bluff meant to startle him and quickly dismissed the notion. As far as he thought, the woman could not actually see him, nor could she see the wide-bodied attack flying at her.
Taking advantage of the rotund reptile’s poorly-judged assumption, Riva jumped out of the way at the last second, shocking the lizardfolk and sending him slamming face-first into the arena wall. Rolling out of the way, Riva picked herself up to see the scaly man losing his invisibility. The large, round reptile had anticipated the woman meeting his wide stomach with complete unawareness, leaving her to smash between him and the edge of the fighting area. Instead, what smashed was his face, and he was seeing scaly stars spinning around him because of it. Hunched on all fours, the reptilian man pulled his head back from the wall.
Before she let her opponent make any sort of effort to get up, Riva jumped on his fat, sagging tail with both feet, stomping his limp appendage and sending another wave of shock through his spine. Startled, the lizardfolk reflexively leaped forward in an attempt to pull his tail away from the woman, resulting in him smacking his head into the wall a second time as she awkwardly slipped off of him. Having suffered two head bashes in a matter of seconds, the lizardfolk quickly fell unconscious.
“Phew… I am getting too old for stuff like this,” Riva muttered softly on the ground. “I do not think I could do that again any time soon.”
With the battle having come to a conclusion, the fabric seller was sent back to her group to wait with the rest of her victorious companions while the portly lizardfolk down below was teleported back outside the tower.
“Riva, that was awesome!” Leone cheered. “The way you totally startled that guy, you had him so spooked!”
“Aw, thank you, Leo,” laughed Riva. “I appreciate the praise.”
“But seriously, how did you see him? You had him tweaking at the idea he wasn’t as invisible as he thought!”
“A woman’s got her ways, Leo. I’m just glad he wasn’t someone genuinely tough. I could tell he was all talk. Even I can handle someone like that.”
“I apologize for not understanding…,” Azim interrupted, “…but how did you know that lizard was not a serious threat?”
The woman laughed again softly. “It’s alright, dear,” she started. “My assumption was not based on anything obvious like not carrying weapons or simply just being a lizardfolk. It was that he stayed hidden. The entire time, even when in his seat, he stayed camouflaged. That’s something only cowards do. Sure some people might try to be mysterious or stealthy. But for someone to stay hidden that long, it’s more likely that they’re hiding for the sake of self-preservation. Because they’re not confident in their strength. Doesn’t matter how strong or weak you actually are. If you rely on hiding over anything else, you likely don’t expect yourself to win… at least not any other way. And that is especially true… when the person hiding is talking as tough as he was. Big talk with no bite is the mark of a true coward. And even someone like me knows how to take care of someone like that.”
“I understand. Thank you,” Azim replied, making a mental note of the woman’s advice.
“Still though, woman, we have got to get you some better defenses,” Leone chimed in. “A spiked shield or something.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
----------------------------------------
After a few other battles between random adventurers in the crowd, Azim and his companions were getting anxious for the robot’s turn. They wondered if he was ever even going to go. Soon enough, there was the familiar glow of the floor’s match selection amidst the travelers. Azim was unsure what to think.
The glow around his new, moss-covered pet took the entire group by surprise, leaving them all speechless. Roman looked around awkwardly, oblivious and not understanding what was about to happen. Instinctively, Azim reached for his cat, making contact with his shoulder just before the creature was transported into the center of the stadium.
Leone, Riva, and the knight were shocked at the display, though keeping Azim’s real identity secret from the armored man, he was not as in the loop with the strange event that had just occurred. The rest of the crowd, however, simply stared with confusion. They had not paid much attention to the other adventurers around them, or the fact that Azim had been sitting for a while without getting picked. Hardly any of them even noticed him reach for the dark green cat and were simply just confused as to why there were two bodies on one side of the fighting area.
“What… what happened?” the knight fumbled.
The other two had a guess, but seeing as how the knight was not as in on Azim’s situation as they were, they resolved with one another to feign ignorance toward the circumstances. Leone simply shrugged with a half-hearted “I dunno’” and moved on from the mystery.
Meanwhile, Azim and Roman stood facing their opponent. Rather than share in the same puzzled look as the rest of the crowd, the man in front of Azim simply looked at him with an aggravated smile. The man was huge, about 6’8’’, and incredibly bulky. He was human by the looks of him, with curly, black hair tied into a bun as big as his own head. He wore no shirt, instead sporting a short, tan, shoulder cape and a ripped pair of black slacks. The man carried a large scimitar in one hand and wore iron-wrapped knuckles on the other. He was truly intimating, like a demon gorilla looking to pummel his foe into a pulp.
“What the hell are you, dude?” the large man said, his intimidating smile never fading. “And what’s that thing?”
“I am Azim, and this is Roman, my pet mosstail,” the android replied.
“Uh huh, uh huh, and why the hell are you both in here?” remarked the man.
“In all honesty, the answer to that question is unclear to me. I can assure you, however, it was not intentional.”
“Well, in all honesty… I don’t really give a shit. I appreciate your cute little introduction though. So I’ll let you know now… the name’s Cav. You don’t really have to worry about remembering it though, this match is gonna’ be over real quick. Hope you don’t mind.”
“I see,” the metal man stated calmly. “For the record, Roman will not be fighting you. It was by pure accident that he was selected.”
The robot then turned to his dark green pet, softly addressing the animal, “Please stand back, Roman.”
“Ahh, don’t worry about it!” the huge man cut in, intensifying his gaze on the robot. “I’m gonna’ take you both on at once, it’s all the more fun for me.”
Before Azim could respond to the hulking man, he charged forward like a rhino, dragging his curved blade behind him. The robot noticed he was ramming toward his moss-covered pet, causing Azim to dial into the situation and prioritize his pet’s safety. “Roman, move that way,” the metal man prompted, raising his finger to the side.
Seeing the green creature move out of the way, Cav altered his direction to maintain his target. Azim was not having it. The robot rushed the man, getting within a foot of the charging man faster than he could ready himself for. “Do not threaten my cat,” the metal man’s monotone uttered, punching Cav in his stomach with the intensity of a shotgun.
The huge man was launched back with the force of a shockwave, smashing into the wall on the opposite end of the arena. He slowly staggered out, desperately trying to regain his composure. The man’s smile was gone. He started to take a step forward but was halted by his own sword, which was now raised up horizontally against his neck. Looking across the arena, Cav saw the metal-covered stranger raising his left arm, the stranger’s palm facing him. It only now occurred to Cav that his opponent only had one arm. “You were not as tough as I expected,” spoke the android from a distance. “Why?”
Doing his best to ignore his current predicament, Cav replied, “W-What do you mean, runt? I’m wondering why someone like you could hit so hard.”
“Yesterday I encountered someone who gave off a powerful presence. One that seemed to resist the power of my attacks. They were not the first, but so far they have been the most obvious example of it to me. I am not sure what it was, but what I am sure of… is that you do not carry that same fortifying presence. Why?”
“Look, kid,” the tall swordsman muttered. “I don’t know much about any of that. All I know is I don’t use fancy gear to make myself stronger. I rely on my own strength, something most people in this damn world don’t have the courage to do.”
“I see,” Azim paused. “If you value raw strength above all other methods of self-improvement, I will admit there are merits to that philosophy that are admirable. However, if you truly want to uphold that ideal... you are not strong enough.”
Cav twitched for a moment, but when the scimitar lining his neck raised slightly, he calmed himself.
The robot slowly walked over to the hulking man, who had lost all sense of intimidation with the room. Flustered from the current conversation, he turned to focus on the weapon that had turned on him. “So what’s this, kid?” the man asked, putting his grin back on his face.
“I like your sword,” Azim spoke. “Despite its size, it has a rather elegant design. One that someone like yourself would not be expected to carry.”
Grunting and shifting, Cav groaned, “You gotta’ problem with me having it or something?”
“Not at all. More than anything I am fascinated by those I meet and the new experiences for me they carry with them. However, your interesting weapon does not diminish the sentiment of my words. Do not… threaten my cat.”
Without waiting for a response from the tall man, Azim retrieved the floating sword from its stasis and slashed a diagonal strike across Cav’s chest. Not pausing for even a moment, he immediately followed up the attack with a powerful side kick, pressing his metal boot directly into the man’s freshly opened wound. Cav lost consciousness almost immediately, though it took several seconds before he finally fell over. Standing over the large man’s defeated body, Azim tossed the scimitar onto his unmoving back.
“You have a lovely weapon. Aspire to be a worthy owner of it,” the robot spoke to his unconscious opponent.
Walking back to his moss-covered cat, Azim rubbed the creature’s forehead in satisfaction. A moment later, Roman glowed once more and was teleported back into the bleachers, leaving Azim alone. He looked around the arena, realizing he had not been the “fighter” selected for the match, and therefore would not be ushered back to his seat.
Taking quick action before the next match started, the android took a couple steps back before running toward the wall of the fighting area, scaling the 4-meter circular guard and making it back to his seat with his companions. Shortly after, two strangers were selected and brought down to the center fighting area, leaving the floor to close off the center with the familiar dome barrier and begin yet another match.